258 entries categorized "Maritime Security"

May 10, 2016

The New York Times reports an American warship sailed on Tuesday within 12 miles of an artificial island built by China in the South China Sea, an operation intended to show that the United States opposes China’s efforts to restrict navigation in the strategic waterway, the Pentagon said. The warship, the William P. Lawrence, a guided missile destroyer, ventured into the vicinity of Fiery Cross Reef, a 700-acre artificial island China constructed in the last 18 months on top of two small rocks.

April 27, 2016

The Associated Press reports members of Congress urged the Obama administration on Wednesday to order more naval operations close to disputed islands in the South China Sea. The State Department said Beijing risks conflict and isolation through its assertive behavior in those waters. Twice since the fall, the U.S. Navy has sailed by artificial islands built by China, and Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that such operations will take place regularly. Republicans said such "freedom of navigation" operations cruising within 12 nautical miles of the manmade islands - what China might consider as their territorial waters - should become routine.

April 25, 2016

The Associated Press reports tensions in the South China Sea are rising, pitting China against smaller and weaker neighbors that all lay claim to islands, coral reefs and lagoons in waters rich in fish and potential gas and oil reserves. Meantime, the U.S. Air Force flew its first mission over the contested Scarborough Shoal area as part of a new Air Contingent force stationed in the Philippines. It involved four A-10C Thunderbolt jets and two Sikorsky HH-60 helicopters. The mission: establishing air and maritime "domain awareness" and "assuring all nations have access to air and sea domains throughout the region in accordance with international law," according to a U.S. military statement.

April 21, 2016

The Associated Press reports a U.S. Navy officer relieved of commanding a Persian Gulf patrol ship allegedly failed to maintain equipment to the point of exposing "his crew to unnecessary risk," interfered with an inquiry into his actions and once slept drunk on a bench at a Dubai port, according to a naval investigation. The accusations against Lt. Cmdr. Jeremiah Daley saw the Navy on March 12 remove him from the USS Typhoon, a Manama, Bahrain-based vessel patrolling a region crucial to global oil supplies where American forces routinely have tense encounters with Iranian forces.

April 14, 2016

The New York Times reports Philippine and American forces began conducting joint naval patrols in the South China Sea last month and will immediately start air operations over the area, United States Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter said during a visit here on Thursday. The naval patrols were agreed on during a meeting in Washington in January between the defense departments of the two countries. The air operations will include aircraft and pilots currently participating in joint military exercises by the two countries in the Philippines.

April 13, 2016

Reuters reports two Russian warplanes with no visible weaponry flew simulated attack passes near a U.S. guided missile destroyer in the Baltic Sea on Tuesday, a U.S. official said, describing it as one of the most aggressive interactions in recent memory. The repeated flights by the Sukhoi SU-24 warplanes, which also flew near the ship a day earlier, were so close they created wake in the water, with 11 passes, the official said. A Russian KA-27 Helix helicopter also made seven passes around the USS Donald Cook, taking pictures. The nearest Russian territory was about 70 nautical miles away in its enclave of Kaliningrad, which sits between Lithuania and Poland.

April 12, 2016

The Associated Press reports the U.S. Navy officer in charge of a flight crew that located three castaways on a remote Pacific island said Monday he has never seen or heard of another rescue quite like it. The stranded men, who were reported missing last Tuesday after a wave overtook their skiff, were found on a tiny Micronesian island on Thursday, officials said. The three had spelled out the word "help" with palm fronds after they swam to the deserted island when their boat capsized.

The New York Times reports after a rocky patch of 25 years, the United States and the Philippines will solidify a new, increasingly complex military relationship this week, driven partly by China’s assertive actions in the South China Sea. A new agreement that allows the United States to build facilities at five Philippine military bases will spread more American troops, planes and ships across the island nation than have been here in decades.

April 01, 2016

The New York Times reports President Obama gathered more than 50 world leaders here on Thursday to discuss one of his favorite topics: locking down nuclear weapons. But it was Obama’s meeting with one of the less friendly of those leaders, President Xi Jinping of China, that captured most of the attention. The leaders announced that the United States and China would sign a climate change accord later in April, a show of unity on an issue that has become a bright spot in the tangled relationship between the two countries. But they quickly moved on to more contentious issues, with Obama pressing Mr. Xi on China’s construction of military facilities in the South China Sea, actions that a White House official said belied a pledge the Chinese president had made last fall not to militarize those waters.

March 21, 2016

Reuters reports China said on Monday agreements like the one reached last week by the United States and the Philippines allowing for a U.S. military presence at five Philippine bases raised questions about militarization in the South China Sea. The United States is keen to boost the military capabilities of East Asian countries and its own regional presence in the face of China's assertive pursuit of territorial claims in the South China Sea, one of the world's busiest trade routes. The United States and its regional allies have expressed concern that China is militarizing the South China Sea with moves to build airfields and other military facilities on the islands it occupies.

March 18, 2016

Reuters reports the United States has seen Chinese activity around a reef China seized from the Philippines nearly four years ago that could be a precursor to more land reclamation in the disputed South China Sea, the U.S. Navy chief said on Thursday. The head of U.S. naval operations, Admiral John Richardson, expressed concern that an international court ruling expected in coming weeks on a case brought by the Philippines against China over its South China Sea claims could be a trigger for Beijing to declare an exclusion zone in the busy trade route. Richardson told Reuters the United States was weighing responses to such a move.

March 16, 2016

The Washington Post reports the Navy’s top admiral in the Pacific said Tuesday that there is a “palpable sense” in the region that “might makes right” has taken root as a philosophy — and he warned that the present chaos in the Middle East, eastern Europe and northern Africa may be an example of what the future could hold. Adm. Scott Swift, commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, said at a maritime conference in Australia that both the acceleration of military activities in the region and the lack of transparency about them are concerns, according to a copy of the remarks provided by his staff. He called for Pacific nations to adhere to longstanding rules in the region that have been a “gold standard” for avoiding conflict.

March 14, 2016

BBC News reports China's Supreme Court is setting up its own international maritime "judicial center" to handle territorial disputes. The top court gave few details in its announcement, but said the center would help China become a "maritime power". Beijing is locked in disputes with its neighbors over claims in the resource-rich South China Sea, with tensions raised in recent months over China's aggressive land reclamation. It has also squared off with Japan over the Diaoyu or Senkaku islands.

March 02, 2016

The New York Times reports the chief of the United States Pacific Command, Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr., on Wednesday proposed reviving an informal strategic coalition made up of the navies of Japan, Australia, India and the United States, an experiment that collapsed a decade ago because of diplomatic protests from China. The proposal was the latest in a series of United States overtures to India, a country wary of forming strategic alliances, to become part of a network of naval powers that would balance China’s maritime expansion. The American ambassador to India, Richard R. Verma, expressed hope in a speech that “in the not-too-distant future,” joint patrols by navy vessels from India and the United States “will become a common and welcome sight throughout Indo-Pacific waters.”

February 19, 2016

Al Jazeera reports Vietnam has lodged a formal complaint to the UN over China's placement of a surface-to-air missile battery on a disputed island in the South China Sea. The country's foreign ministry said on Friday it was deeply concerned by the Chinese deployment, which it said threatened regional stability. "These are serious infringements of Vietnam's sovereignty over the Paracels, threatening peace and stability in the region as well as security, safety and freedom of navigation and flight," Le Hai Binh, Vietnam's foreign ministry spokesman, said in a statement.

February 17, 2016

BBC News reports China has deployed surface-to-air missiles on a disputed island in the South China Sea, Taiwan says. Satellite images taken on 14 February appear to show two batteries of eight missile launchers and a radar system on Woody or Yongxing Island in the Paracels. The presence of missiles would significantly increase tensions in the acrimonious South China Sea dispute. China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi said reports were a Western media invention. But Wang defended "the limited and necessary self-defense facilities" on islands inhabited by Chinese personnel as "consistent with the right for self-preservation and self-protection.... under the international law".

February 04, 2016

The Washington Post reports the Russian submarine fleet has returned to the North Atlantic with such gusto that NATO sub commanders are reporting “more activity from Russian submarines than we’ve seen since the days of the Cold War,” according to a top NATO admiral. Royal Navy Vice Adm. Clive Johnstone, speaking aboard a Spanish frigate at the end of last month, told the defense analysis group IHS Janes that the alliance is also seeing “a level of Russian capability that we haven’t seen before.” Russia’s submarine program froze as funds dried up following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

February 01, 2016

The Associated Press reports China strongly condemned the United States after a U.S. warship deliberately sailed near one of the Beijing-controlled islands in the hotly contested South China Sea to exercise freedom of navigation and challenge China's vast territorial claims. The missile destroyer USS Curtis Wilbur sailed within 12 nautical miles (22 kilometers) of Triton Island in the Paracel chain "to challenge excessive maritime claims of parties that claim the Paracel Islands," without notifying the three claimants beforehand, Defense Department spokesman Mark Wright said Saturday in Washington. China, Taiwan and Vietnam have overlapping claims in the Paracels and require prior notice from ships transiting what they consider their territorial waters.

January 15, 2016

Reuters reports China will invite private investment to build infrastructure on islands it controls in the disputed South China Sea and will this year start regular flights to one of them, state media said on Friday, moves likely to anger other claimants. China claims almost all of the energy-rich waters of the South China Sea, through which more than $5 trillion of maritime trade passes each year. The Philippines, Brunei, Vietnam, Malaysia and Taiwan have overlapping claims. In 2012 China set up what it calls Sansha city, based on Woody Island in the Paracels, to administer its islands there.

January 13, 2016

The New York Times reports Iran’s release of 10 United States Navy sailors on Wednesday, less than 24 hours after they were detained on the Persian Gulf, is being hailed in both countries as a sign that their relations have evolved since the signing of the nuclear accord last summer. Secretary of State John Kerry thanked the Iranians “for their cooperation in swiftly resolving this matter” and suggested in a statement that the quick resolution of the issue was a product of the nearly daily back-and-forth that now takes place between Washington and Tehran, after three decades of hostility and stony silence.

January 07, 2016

Reuters reports tension over the South China Sea highlights the need for the United States to maintain a strong Navy to serve as a deterrent, U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan said on Thursday, criticizing the Obama administration for proposals he said would reduce the U.S. naval fleet. "This just shows that we need to have a strong navy," Ryan said at a news briefing. "We should not have a president proposing to lower our ship count to pre-World War One levels. This means we need to have a strong military and a strong Navy, and a real foreign policy, which we do not now have."

January 05, 2016

The Washington Post reports the Navy’s top officer released a new plan on Tuesday to stay ahead of potential adversaries at sea, saying the service must develop new concepts for fighting alongside the Marine Corps, reorganize two of its largest headquarters and reinvigorate how it trains leaders. Adm. John M. Richardson’s 10-page plan, titled “A Design for Maintaining Maritime Superiority,” is meant to jump-start the Navy into better preparing for the future, he said in an interview. “Our adversaries are bent on leaving us swirling in their wake,” the document warned. It later added: “Looking forward, it is clear that the challenges the Navy faces are shifting in character, are increasingly difficult to address in isolation, and are changing more quickly. This will require us to reexamine our approaches in every aspect of our operations.”

December 08, 2015

Reuters reports the United States has agreed with Singapore on a first deployment of the U.S. P8 Poseidon spy plane in Singapore this month, in a fresh response to China over its pursuit of territorial claims in the South China Sea. China, which is at odds with Washington over the South China Sea, said on Tuesday the move was aimed at militarizing the region. In a joint statement after a meeting in Washington on Monday, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter and Singapore Defense Minister Ng Eng Hen welcomed the inaugural deployment of the aircraft in Singapore from Dec. 7 to 14. A U.S. defense official said further deployments in Singapore could be expected. The move comes at a time of heightened tensions in the South China Sea.

November 13, 2015

BBC News reports two U.S. B-52 bomber planes have flown near artificial islands built by China in disputed areas of the South China Sea, the Pentagon has said. Their mission continued despite being warned by Chinese ground controllers. The incident comes ahead of a visit by US President Barack Obama to a summit in Manila next week, which China's President Xi Jinping will also attend. China is locked in maritime territorial disputes with several neighbors in the South China Sea. It claims a large swathe of the resource-rich area and has been aggressively reclaiming land and building facilities on reefs, which the U.S. and others oppose.

November 05, 2015

The Associated Press reports with a key Asian ally at his side, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter made a subtle jab at China on Thursday by flying aboard an American aircraft carrier plying the contested waters of the South China Sea. He and his Malaysian counterpart, Hishammuddin Hussein, watched U.S. Navy fighter jets roar off the steel deck of the USS Theodore Roosevelt as it sailed under a midday sun about 70 miles northwest of Borneo. Carter said his visit and the presence of the hulking warship should not be seen as a new twist to the U.S. naval presence is Asia. But he made no bones about the signal he was sending by visiting amid rising tensions with China.

November 04, 2015

The New York Time reports differences over the South China Sea forced countries from Southeast Asia, along with China and the United States, to cancel a joint statement at a meeting of defense ministers in Malaysia on Wednesday. The Chinese Ministry of Defense confirmed that the meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or Asean, had failed to conclude a joint declaration, and it blamed “the individual country (countries) out of the region.” In a statement on its website, the ministry implied, but did not name, the United States as the main reason for the breakdown in the discussions. The ministry did not mention the South China Sea or China’s insistence that the statement not include any mention of the strategic waterway.

November 03, 2015

The New York Times reports the head of the United States Pacific Command, Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr., said in Beijing on Tuesday that the Navy would continue to conduct freedom of navigation operations similar to one in the South China Sea last week that China criticized. Speaking to a small audience at the Stanford Center at Peking University, Admiral Harris defended the operation last week, which involved sending a destroyer inside the 12-nautical-mile radius that China claims as its territorial waters around Subi Reef, an artificial island built by the Chinese in the South China Sea. “We’ve been conducting freedom of navigation operations all over the world for decades, so no one should be surprised by them,” Admiral Harris said. “The South China Sea is not, and will not, be an exception.”

November 02, 2015

Reuters reports U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes said on Monday that there would be more demonstrations of the United States’ commitment to the freedom of navigation in the disputed South China Sea. “That’s our interest there… It's to demonstrate that we will uphold the principle of freedom of navigation," Rhodes said while speaking at event in Washington. Rhodes’ comments come after a U.S. guided-missile destroyer sailed close to one of Beijing’s man-made islands in the South China Sea last week. The USS Lassen's patrol was the most significant U.S. challenge yet to the 12-nautical-mile territorial limits China claims around artificial islands it has built in the Spratly archipelago.

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The USS Lassen's patrol was the most significant U.S. challenge yet to the 12-nautical-mile territorial limits China claims around artificial islands it has built in the Spratly archipelag

October 30, 2015

Al Jazeera reports China's naval chief has issued a serious warning to the U.S. navy against carrying out "provocative acts" in the South China Sea, two days after Washington vowed to again sail warships near disputed islands there. Wu Shengli told his US counterpart John Richardson that even "a minor incident could spark conflict" between the two sides, China's official Xinhua agency reported on Friday, three days after a USS Lassen, a guided-missile destroyer, sailed within 22km of at least one of the man-made land formations claimed by Beijing. "If the U.S. continues to carry out these kinds of dangerous, provocative acts, there could be a serious situation between frontline forces from both sides on the sea and in the air, or even a minor incident that could spark conflict," Wu said.

October 29, 2015

Opinio Juris reports it’s been a rough week for China’s South China Seas policy. In addition to facing a US Freedom of Navigation operation near one of its artificial islands, the arbitration tribunal formed under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea has decided that it has jurisdiction to proceed to the merits on the Philippines’ legal challenge to certain Chinese activities in the South China Sea. The tribunal reserved the question of jurisdiction over the Philippines’ biggest and most flashy claim: the argument that China’s Nine Dash Line “historic rights” claim is inconsistent with UNCLOS.

October 28, 2015

Reuters reports U.S. Chief of Naval Operations Admiral John Richardson and his Chinese counterpart, Admiral Wu Shengli, will hold an hour long video teleconference Thursday, days after China was angered by a U.S. warship's patrol within a 12-mile limit around a man-made island in the South China Sea, according to a U.S. official. The meeting was initiated by both officers to discuss recent operations in the South China Sea and the naval relationship between the two countries, the official said. This will be the third video teleconference held between a U.S. naval operations chief and the Chinese equivalent.

October 26, 2015

Reuters reports the U.S. Navy plans to send the USS Lassen destroyer within 12 nautical miles of artificial islands built by China in the South China Sea within 24 hours, the first of more regular challenges to China's territorial claims, a U.S. defense official said on Monday. The destroyer's patrol would occur near Subi and Mischief reefs in the Spratly archipelago, features that were formerly submerged at high tide before China began a massive dredging project to turn them into islands in 2014. The ship would likely be accompanied by a U.S. Navy P-8A surveillance plane, and possibly P-3 surveillance plane, which have been conducting regular surveillance missions in the region, according to the official.

October 09, 2015

Reuters reports the commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific said on Friday the United States must carry out freedom of navigation patrols throughout the Asia Pacific, but declined to say whether it planned go within 12 nautical miles of China's artificial islands in the South China Sea. Admiral Harry Harris told a Washington seminar one of his responsibilities was to offer options to President Barack Obama and Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, and added, "I'm comfortable knowing those options are being considered." Asked about reports that the United States planned to challenge 12-nautical mile limits around China's artificial islands, he replied: "I will not confirm that. I simply won't discuss future operations."

September 25, 2015

The Washington Post reports China has finished its first airstrip in the hotly-contested Spratly Island chain in the South China Sea, according to new satellite photos released by IHS Janes. The airstrip, located on Fiery Cross Reef, is more than 3,000 meters long and appears to be complete due to the new presence of runway heading markings and helipad designators. Fiery Cross is just one of three reefs in the Spratly group of islands that China has built airstrips on. Currently, airstrips of the same length are under construction on Mischief Reef and Subi Reef. According to IHS Janes, a defense analysis company, the completion of the runway indicates that China will soon be able to ferry in more supplies and start air patrols over the disputed island chain.

September 15, 2015

The New York Times reports new satellite images show that China has started construction of an airstrip on a third artificial island in the South China Sea that will strengthen Beijing’s military capacity in the contested waters, Western analysts say.The airstrip on Mischief Reef is about 20 miles from a small Philippine military garrison on an existing tiny island and will put the installation under great pressure, said James Hardy, Asia-Pacific editor of IHS Jane’s Defense Weekly. That airstrip will most likely be used for turboprop patrol, but it could easily be equipped for “full military action” if needed, Mr. Hardy said.

September 10, 2015

The Associated Press reports while the eastern Pacific Ocean remains the most popular route for cocaine smuggling, the Caribbean is again becoming a popular option decades after U.S. authorities all but shut down cocaine smuggling into South Florida in the notorious era of the cocaine cowboys that started in the 1970s. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration estimates smugglers have increased shipments of cocaine through the Caribbean from about 60 tons to about 100 tons in the past several years. But it's difficult to measure how much cocaine gets through the dragnet of surveillance planes, U.S. Coast Guard ships and other detection efforts.

September 04, 2015

The Washington Post reports a group of Chinese naval vessels transited U.S. territorial waters near Alaska this week, a Pentagon official said on Friday, in an unusual maneuver that underscores the potential for increased U.S.-Chinese friction at sea. A U.S. military official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss details of the Chinese naval movements, said the group of five Chinese vessels had passed within about 12 nautical miles of the Aleutian Islands following a joint Russian-Chinese military exercise. The ships did not violate international law, which allows countries to transit other nations’ seas under what is called “innocent passage,” the official said. He likened China’s movement through U.S. waters off Alaska to the activities of U.S. ships in the Strait of Hormuz, off the coast of Iran.

August 06, 2015

Reuters reports Japan wants to give planes to the Philippines that Manila could use for patrols in the South China Sea, sources said, a move that would deepen Tokyo's security ties with the Southeast Asian nation most at odds with Beijing over the disputed waterway. Four sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters that Japan was looking to offer three Beechcraft TC-90 King Air planes that could be fitted with basic surface and air surveillance radar. They said talks within the Japanese government were preliminary and would need to overcome legal hurdles. Japan had yet to formally propose the planes as an alternative to more sophisticated Lockheed Martin P3-C aircraft that Manila wants to track Chinese submarine activity, they added.

August 05, 2015

The New York Times reports with tensions mounting over China’s land reclamation projects in disputed South China Sea waters, Secretary of State John Kerry urged his Chinese counterpart on Wednesday to halt “problematic actions” in the area to provide an opportunity for diplomacy, a senior State Department official said. Kerry met with China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, in Kuala Lumpur on the sidelines of a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations that has been marked by concern over Beijing’s effort to pile sand around reefs in the South China Sea and to construct buildings, harbors, radar towers and airstrips there. More than 2,000 acres of artificial islands have been created, according to United States officials.

July 30, 2015

Reuters reports China's Defense Ministry on Thursday accused the United States of "militarizing" the South China Sea by staging patrols and joint military drills there, ramping up the rhetoric ahead of a key regional security meeting in Malaysia next week. China has repeatedly urged Washington not to take sides in the escalating maritime dispute over the area, where the Asian giant last year stepped up its creation of artificial islands, alarming neighbors and provoking U.S. criticism. Washington has demanded China halt land reclamation and militarization of the disputed area and pursue a peaceful resolution according to international law. China has been angered by U.S. navy and air force forays through waters it claims as its own, especially this month, when U.S. Navy Admiral Scott Swift said he joined a routine surveillance flight. The United States has also stepped up military contacts, including drills, with regional allies such as the Philippines, which also has claims in the South China Sea.

July 22, 2015

Reuters reports Japan is set to take part in joint naval exercises with India and the United States in the Indian Ocean in October, military and diplomatic sources said, a drill that so riled China eight years ago that Delhi has not since hosted such a multilateral wargame. The Indian Ocean has emerged as a new arena of competition between China making inroads and India trying to recover its position as the dominant maritime power in the region. New Delhi's decision to expand the "Malabar" exercises that it conducts with the United States each year to include Japan suggests a tightening of military relations between three major maritime powers in Asia, analysts said. Military officials from India, the U.S. and Japan are meeting at a U.S. navy base in Yokosuka, near Tokyo, on Wednesday and Thursday to plan the exercises, a navy and a diplomatic source in New Delhi said.

July 10, 2015

Reuters reports China has added a semi-submersible ship to its naval fleet to strengthen the country's presence in the disputed South China Sea, state television reported on Friday. The ship, which bears the number 868, can be used to transport small vessels and as a temporary dock to repair damaged naval ships, according to the official microblog of China Central Television (CCTV). The ship is the first of its type to join China's South China Sea fleet according to the TV station. It could be used in conducting large-scale landings in the event of conflict in the Taiwan Strait, and as a mobile base in the South China Sea, according to a report on Chinese news website Sina. China has ramped up defense spending in recent years to modernize its military forces, the world's largest. China is also aiming to develop an ocean-going "blue water" navy capable of defending the growing interests of the world's second-largest economy as it take a more assertive stance in territorial disputes in the South and East China seas.

July 06, 2015

AFP reports the United States and Australia kicked off a massive joint biennial military exercise on Sunday, with Japan taking part for the first time as tensions with China over territorial rows loom over the drills. The two-week "Talisman Sabre" exercise in the Northern Territory and Queensland state involves 30,000 personnel from the US and Australia practicing operations at sea, in the air and on land. Some 40 personnel from Japan's army — the Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF) — will join the American contingent, while more than 500 troops from New Zealand are also involved in the exercise, which concludes on July 21. "It is a very, very important alliance," Prime Minister Tony Abbott said Friday in Sydney on board the USS Blue Ridge, which is taking part in the exercise, referring to Australia-US ties. "There's subtle message going out that at every level — from hardware to technical and strategic expertise and cooperation — the main American allies and America are working very closely together largely to account for China," John Lee, a China specialist at the University of Sydney, told AFP.

July 02, 2015

Reuters reports China has almost finished building a 3,000-meter-long (10,000-foot) airstrip on one of its artificial islands in the disputed Spratly archipelago of the South China Sea, new satellite photographs of the area show. A U.S. military commander had told Reuters in May that the airstrip on Fiery Cross Reef could be operational by year-end, although the June 28 images suggest that could now be sooner. The airstrip will be long enough to accommodate most Chinese military aircraft, security experts have said, giving Beijing greater reach into the heart of maritime Southeast Asia. China said on Tuesday some of its land reclamation in the Spratlys, where it's building seven islands on top of coral reefs, had been completed, although it gave few details.

June 12, 2015

Reuters reports China's sole aircraft carrier conducted exercises on Friday, the navy said without specifying its location, amid escalating disputes over maritime territory with some of China's Asian neighbors. The Liaoning conducted drills and tests in the "relevant sea" along with carrier-based fighter jets after setting sail from the coastal city of Qingdao, the navy said. China wants to develop an ocean-going "blue water" navy capable of defending the growing interests of the world's second largest economy as it adopts a more assertive stance in territorial disputes with neighbors in the South China and East China seas. China had worked to boost its pilots' skills with fighter jets, including the Shenyang J-15, in recent years, the statement added, saying the navy had tested the power, war-readiness and technological capabilities of its aircraft.

June 10, 2015

The New York Times reports the Emanuel, a 90-foot trawler, has what is supposed to be a humdrum job, plying a 30-mile stretch of the Baltic Sea to make sure vessels do not snag their anchors on a pair of electricity cables recently installed on the seabed. On the morning of April 30, however, the Emanuel’s captain sent an alarming message to the Dutch operator of the trawler. “The Russian Navy is back,” he reported, adding that Lithuania had also sent a warship to the area, a patch of shallow water off this Lithuanian port city. The encounter passed without violence, and the cables, being built to connect Lithuania to Sweden’s electricity grid, were left undisturbed. But the intrusion, one of four this year by Russian warships into the cable-laying zone, signaled yet another round in what has become a nerve-rattling test of wills between Russia and the West over former Soviet lands since the conflict in Ukraine started last year.

June 01, 2015

Reuters reports U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter discussed his call for an end to island-building in the South China Sea in talks on Monday with his Vietnamese counterpart, who said Vietnam had not expanded its islands but had done work to prevent wave erosion. The response appeared to fall short of the immediate halt to land reclamation activity and further militarization of the islands that Carter sought in an initial appeal last week in Hawaii, and again at a security conference in Singapore. Carter told a joint news conference with Defense Minister Phung Quang Thanh that he and the general had discussed his proposal for a permanent halt to reclamation and militarization of the islands and that Vietnam was considering the idea.

May 29, 2015

Reuters reports the United States said on Friday that China had placed mobile artillery weapons systems on a reclaimed island in the disputed South China Sea, a development that Republican Sen. John McCain called "disturbing and escalatory." Brent Colburn, a Pentagon spokesman traveling with Defense Secretary Ash Carter, said the United States was aware of the weapons. McCain, chairman of the Senate's Armed Services Committee, said the move would escalate tensions but not lead to conflict. In Beijing, China's foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said she had no information on the weapons. U.S. officials say Chinese dredging work has added some 2,000 acres to five outposts in the resource-rich Spratly islands in the South China Sea, including 1,500 acres this year.

May 28, 2015

The Washington Post reports Defense Secretary Ashton Carter bluntly warned China Wednesday to stop its buildup of man-made islands in the South China Sea and vowed that the U.S. military would continue to patrol international waters and airspace in the region. Carter’s comments, made at a ceremony in Hawaii to recognize Adm. Harry B. Harris, the new commander of U.S. military forces in the Pacific, further escalated a simmering rhetorical conflict between Washington and Beijing over access to the South China Sea and other Asian waters. “There should be no mistake: the United States will fly, sail, and operate wherever international law allows, as we do all around the world,” Carter said at the U.S. military’s joint base at Pearl Harbor.

May 01, 2015

Reuters reports though the Pentagon argues vehemently that budget cuts will harm national security, there are some fairly obvious places where defense cuts would not only save taxpayers’ money, they could also actually boost national security. Case in point: the Navy’s patrol force for the Persian Gulf. The sailing branch’s plan is to revitalize the force with new vessels that will cost far more than the current ships. Worse, the new vessels will probably be far less effective. The Navy could do better by spending less — more than $3 billion less, to be precise. That would surely please Congress as well as skeptical voters. Currently, however, the Navy plans to swap out ships called Cyclones for much larger and costlier Littoral Combat Ships, with hulls that draw twice as deeply as the patrol boats. Meaning they can’t patrol in all the areas the Cyclones can.